Different strokes for different folks. I saw them twice, and never saw the tail-gating festival atmosphere and marketplace--I last saw them in '78 so that may have been too early for the "In the Dark" following changes.
Nor when I saw them was there excessive tuning, distorted sound--in fact their sound was the purest and cleanest I heard in my rock band years. And those are not characteristics of the recordings I've collected either.
I followed the Dead until Keith and Donna Godchaux left the band, and really like the last year or two of their tenure less than any of the music before. (That is about when I stopped following rock with real interest in general). But man there is some great Dead music . . . and lots of it.